fujitsu siemens laptop not working

[silver99]

its a fujitsu siemens lifebook S 6010, it was a throwaway at a company that my friend worked for so he gave it to me for free.

i bought a charger for it, but as soon as i started it up it began to install windows XP by itself but then fails saying that a certain file cannot be copied. i tried to enter the setup but it asks for a password, you can still change the boot order but for some reason it wouldnt boot from the CD rom.

My questions are, how do i reset the bios password so i can have access to the setup menu, and do you have any suggestions on how i could reinstall the OS. I was thinkin that maybe the DVD reader is faulty, but im not too sure an external one is an expensive solution, so if anyone has any advice, please help.

Thanks

[staffsMike]

I don't think you're supposed to discuss things like bios password cracking etc..

You can buy alternative laptop optical drives..they should simply plug in and work

Take it to a laptop shop and see what they say.

[GoNz0]

if u fancy it you can hunt down the cmos battery and reset the password, as its a throwaway laptop i assume its old enough to not have the security chips in place to stop the BIOS password resets.

flip it over and remove every panel you see, if you spot a small battery connected to a small fly lead with plug, remove it, hit the power button to remove any remaining voltage and leave it off for an hour. it may also be under the keyboard if not behind a panel on the bottom.

if you cant find the battery the laptop has to be stripped down, its not easy if you have never done it before ! and in some cases its not removable and needs shorting out to reset it.

[silver99]

LOL i love new experiences, so im going to give it a go and open it up. it is quite old though, i think its about 1GHz, with 256 MB Ram. When i put the CD Rom in i can hear it trying to read it, but it will still continue to install from the hard drive.

is there a way i can maybe remove the hard drive and buy a cable to connect it to my pc and the set it up, it might be a cheaper option to removable CD reader

[staffsMike]

Yeah you can get them at maplins for a few quid

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...28724&doy=17m7

[GoNz0]

u cant set windows up on a PC then put the drive into a laptop, it will crash as soon as it tries to use the wrong chipset !

[staffsMike]

Sometimes if you set the ide controller to a standard one in windows you can get it to boot on the laptop..not fool proof but has worked for a few laptops.

Another fun one to try is install the laptop chipset drivers while in windows on you pc. Then shut it down (rather than let it restart). Stick it back in the laptop and see if it boots.

All good fun.

[silver99]

u cant set windows up on a PC then put the drive into a laptop, it will crash as soon as it tries to use the wrong chipset !

thats what i thought as well, but is it possible to somehow set a fresh windows setup on the hard disk from my pc after formating it, and then let it boot itself up?

[silver99]

Sometimes if you set the ide controller to a standard one in windows you can get it to boot on the laptop..not fool proof but has worked for a few laptops.

Another fun one to try is install the laptop chipset drivers while in windows on you pc. Then shut it down (rather than let it restart). Stick it back in the laptop and see if it boots.

All good fun.

if i get a IDE to usb cable could i still install windows on it form my pc if i use the chipset drivers?

ok, let me run 1 last idea past you lol, im just having abit of a brainstorm lol

i know u can get an operating system that can boot off a CD is there a way to transfer it to a hard drive? because its a similar concept, its still booting from a device just not a CD

[GoNz0]

for what they cost, why not get another cd drive, ?

your not going to lose out bud, if it dont work you strip the lot and flog it on ebay.. you may think its worthless, but trust me its not !

[silver99]

cool, thanks for the advice guys, if nothing works out, off to ebay it goes LOL